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School Committee OKs land for Leominster Center for Excellence innovation

By Jack Minch, jminch@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
01/23/2013 07:13:44 AM EST

LEOMINSTER -- The School Committee gave unanimous approval Tuesday to open the new Leominster Center for Excellence innovation school at The Trustees of Reservations' Doyle Conservation Center, with an anticipated opening date of Feb. 25.

The school is designed for students who are not reaching their full potential at Leominster High School, whether for socio-economic, academic, social or other reasons.

"Really, the total needs of the student are being addressed," Pratt said.

The school is using a quarter of the Doyle Conservation Center on Abbott Avenue and expects to open with about 35 freshmen from Leominster High School.

"It's a tremendous partnership with the trustees," said Ned Pratt, administrator for special education and pupil services. "It's really a great relationship to foster with the preservationists of open space."

The School Department had to go through a few rounds of requesting proposals for leased space before settling on the trustees.

In the latest round, which closed Jan. 4, only two landlords submitted proposals, Pratt and LCEi Principal Garo Papazian said.

"I'm very excited about it," Papazian said of the conservation center. "I like it because I think it's the first public school in the state to work with a conservation group like that."

The School Department is paying $7 a square foot for the space, which comes out $2,900 per month, Pratt said.

The committee agreed to a one-year lease, with two one-year options at the School Department's discretion.

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The school has a $425,000 budget for the fiscal year that started July 1 and will come in under that because of the late start, Pratt said.

Papazian has the school materials in order, curriculum set, philosophy in place and the teachers hired.

"Our curriculum is going to be no different than the curriculum in the high school," Papazian said. "It's how we offer it that's different."

Papazian said he has been able to get some good deals on equipment. The Berlin-Boylston Regional School District built a new high school and furnished it with new equipment, so it sold its equipment from the old school.

Among the equipment he bought were 25 microscopes for $125, considerably less than the $7,500 retail value, he said.

In addition to Papazian, the staff will include Adjustment Counselor Erin MacAruso, and teachers for math, English, history and science. They are all new to the district.

Papazian and Pratt have talked to guidance counselors and assistant principals at middle schools to help identify the students who have all been told they were transferring to the new school.

The school is starting with ninth-graders but expects to add grades in ensuing years until it reaches capacity at 200-250 students.

The school will probably need more room when it reaches capacity, Papazian said.

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